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Sunday, May 19, 2019

What is the most important question for students ? And are schools helping provide an answer?

Who am I ?

The question for all learners ; ‘Who Am I? ‘

Readings Sunday 19th May 2019

Years ago New Zealand artist Colin McCahon created a
controversial large abstract painting called ‘I Am’.

For us the message was answering the question that we
all

struggle with - who am I? What things are important to me? What makes me
who I am?

The questions above should underpin all the activities
in our education system. That so many young people leave education with these
questions unanswered ought to be of great concern and worse still leaves
students open to becoming to become involved in

Making your mark!!

anti-social behaviour. The
outbreak of graffiti in our society is a sign of young people ‘making their
mark’ as
a protest against the way many of them feel they have been treated by their
school experience. For many students it is schools that are dysfunctional.

It is our belief that an education system premised on
the arts wouldensure all students leave schooling with a positive learning
identity.

The current reactionary emphasis on literacy and
numeracy is

a distraction– literacy still remains a problem for far too many students
and, as maths educator Jo Boaler (who has recently presented in New Zealand)
has said, far too many students leave schooling suffering from ‘maths anxiety’.

Dr Beeby

It is time for a real change of direction – or for many
back to the future to the exciting days of Dr Beeby best represented in Elwyn
Richardson’s
book ‘In
the Early World’first
printed in the 1960s and thankfully recently reprinted by the NZCER. This
inspirational book gives today’s teachers insight into the power of personal
creativity through art, language, movement, drama and inquiry learning. Another
pioneer teacher Sylvia Ashton Warner wrote in ‘Teacher’ that students were like a volcano
with two vents – one
vent if tapped led to creativity, the other to violence.

Today we have educationalists like Sir Ken Robinson
powerfully asking for schools to place creativity central to learning– creativity in
its widest interpretation. Sir Ken believes creativity is important as literacy
and numeracy but few schools follow his advice.

Sadly, today the arts play a marginal role in our
schools and most to be seen is not about personal expression but more facile
decoration and, as a result of a formulaic intentional approach to learning,
results in art work ‘well
done’ but 'clone like' in appearance.

Eliot Eisner, an art educationalist, writes ‘the arts are
rooted in man’s
need to give form to his experience, to come to know the world in ways only the
arts can make possible’.
Learners experience their world through their senses and from such experience
curiosity is enlivened, questions asked, and realistic inquiries undertaken.
Such realistic studies are open to be solved in all the ways open to being
human – the
arts, media, words, maths, music and drama – integrated learning.

Our observation is that literacy and numeracy have all
but

Beyond literacy and numeracy - the real

squeezed out the importance of experiential learning and related arts and
this is not helped by the destructive use of ability grouping and inquiry
learning overly focused on learning
through the internet.

No wonder many students, even the most ‘successful’, fail to
develop a positive view of themselves.

We see the metaphor for a classroom (whether ILEs or
self-contained) as ‘mini Te
Papa’- a challenging mix of an
science/technology
laboratory, a media centre , an arts and drama

Te Papa - a metaphor for a school

studio, and an exhibition centre
with students ‘seeking,
using and creating their own knowledge’ as it states in the New Zealand Curriculum. And
integral to this providing opportunities to integrate, in realistic contexts,
literacy and numeracy. The arts ‘help learners secure new and deeper meanings from
experience… with
students not only makers of their own reality but creators of their own minds’

Howard Gardner

(Eisner). This view of
learning aligns with the ‘multiple
intelligences’ of
Howard Gardner – each
intelligence providing a frame of reference to interpret experience.

The
teacher’s
role, as Jerome Bruner wisely says, is ‘the canny art of intellectual temptation’providing a
learning environment that captures student’s curiosity and, when students become involved,
providing guidance lightly, and helping individual gain missing skills to allow
them to achieve their

Eliot Eisner

‘personal
best’. Eisner writes 'teachers need to help without being hurtful
and to guide without being overbearing, and to explain without being pedantic'.
Most of all teachers give their students achievements the attention and respect
it deserves. Teaching in this respect is an art in itself – the highest
form of creativity.Elwyn Richardson saw
his students as ‘a
community of artist and scientists exploring their environment and personal
worlds’,
and also said that ‘his
students were as much his teacher as he was theirs.’

This vision is the opposite to the teacher dominated
formulaic assessment environment currently is to be seen – an environment
that is not helping students ( nor teachers) express who they are. Imagine an
education system premise on developing the gift and talents of all learners.

Readings

For teachers interested in developing arts based
programmes our last blog has some good reads.

‘All too often we can get so
mired in the present that we are unable to see beyond whatever is taking our
attention. Teachers, trying to interpret what is currently expected of them,
are in such a position. All it causes is stress and confusion. Having some sort
of insight into the past can put the present into perspective and better still
give ideas for future directions.’

For those interested in Play Based Learning might be
interested in the forgotten genesis of progressive early education

'Since 'Tomorrows Schools'
(1986) teachers would be excused if they thought all ideas about teaching and
learning came from those distant from the classroom - and more recently imposed
by technocrats and politicians. This was not always the case. Play based learning was once a feature of junior classes.'

How Integrating Arts Into Other Subjects Makes Learning Come Alive

‘Art has long been recognized
as an important part of a well-rounded education -- but when it comes down to
setting budget priorities, the arts rarely rise to the top despite the many
studies showing that exposure to the arts can help with academics too. A few
schools are taking the research to heart, weaving the arts into everything they
do and finding that the approach not only boosts academic achievement but also
promotes creativity, self-confidence and school pride.’

‘It seems proper when thinking
of creativity our classrooms to reflect on the writings of 1950s pioneer
creative teacher Elwyn Richardson. His ideas are to be found in his
inspirational book ‘In the Early World’ first
published by the NZCER in 1964 (reprinted 1994).’

Why is teaching kids to draw not a more important part
of the curriculum?

‘Drawing plays a big role in
our cognitive development. It can help us learn to write and think creatively,
develop hand-eye co-ordination, hone analytic skills, and conceptualise
ideas.But drawing is rarely used as a tool for learning in schools. Generally,
mostschool teachers aren’t trained in
visual education.’

’50 years ago and the potential
of computing to enhance learning was enormous but also virgin territory. Since
then we have seen many foolish and wasteful efforts along with some that were
magical and quite beneficial. Half a century later, it seems worthwhile to
pause and reflect upon the impact computers and computing have had upon
schools, learning, and the society as a whole.’

‘If well-designed environments improve learning for
students, what are the features of a ‘well-designed’ environment?
Research suggests that when the following elements are in place, student
learning is likely to accelerate.’

Education reform has led to the "death of the
teacher" new book argues.

‘Just when you think you have a firm grip on the
theories, politics, practices and trends affecting education in Australia, a
book like Flip the System Australia arrives to shake you out of your comfort
zone. That’s
what happened to me when I read this book, which stems from what appears to be
a global education movement against neoliberalism. The Flip the System
organisation holds that the neoliberal shift in reform has “led, in a
more postmodern sense, to the death of the teacher”. That hooked
me.’

‘By encouraging our children to approach situations as
problem solvers, and giving them the tools to think for themselves, we will
grow adults who aren’t afraid to ask tough questions of politicians,
doctors, college professors, and anyone else. And, they will take an active role
in understanding situations before forming opinions or voting.’